


Oh, the Places We Used to Know.

by ATotalNightmare



Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: A lot - Freeform, Sadness, gah this is sad, henry cares about sammy, hope y'all like this??, oof
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 09:07:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18070493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ATotalNightmare/pseuds/ATotalNightmare
Summary: Henry and Sammy had been pretty good friends, before Henry had left. Sammy had been a grumpy, but fairly friendly man in the beginning. And, over the course of a few years, Sammy was rarely motivated to write any music. Henry regretted leaving him and his studio behind, but he hadn't had a choice; he'd been drafted. And when Henry came back, after 30 years... Oh, how much more he regretted leaving.





	Oh, the Places We Used to Know.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Katastrophe94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katastrophe94/gifts).
  * Inspired by ['Through a Mirror, Darkly'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682462) by [Katastrophe94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katastrophe94/pseuds/Katastrophe94). 



      Henry had left his old studio 30 years ago; he'd been drafted, and Joey hated him for it, even though he'd had no choice but to leave. And, even though Henry told himself over and over that he'd had no choice in the matter, he still regretted leaving Joey and the studio behind. And, after coming back home after the war, and staying with Linda and his kids, he decided to never go back. Besides, the studio had closed down a few years back; he didn't have choice, whether he'd wanted to go back or not. 

      It seemed he didn't have a choice in anything anymore. Not when he was invited by Joey to go back to the studio, not when he'd been trapped inside of a studio filled with monsters. He wondered what the hell had driven Joey to... do all of this. It seemed Joey had 'lost his mind', according to Wally. Joey had never been the brightest man when it came to dangerous things; he'd always dabbled in stuff he shouldn't have, and the studio was proof of that. Though, he didn't know the full extent of it until he had fallen into the music department. 

      Sammy and Henry had been pretty good friends before Henry had left. Henry offered motivation in a place where very little of it existed, and Sammy, in return, let Henry listen to some of his own music pieces to get motivation himself. They lifted each other up. And, although Sammy looked and acted like a grumpy, grouchy man, he was generous and kind. Yes, he usually yelled at Wally for losing his keys, but offered some advice to the young janitor in order to prevent losing them as often. Sammy had given Susie gifts on her birthdays, even though they'd known each other for only a short period of time. Sammy even occasionally offered some lessons to band members who were new, or more inexperienced than others. Henry respected Sammy for that. After all, the most Henry could do was break up fights, calm people down, and listen to others. He hated seeing how Sammy had gotten more and more ragged over time, and hated himself for leaving the composer behind. He had no clue how Sammy was doing, as they couldn't write to each other. Henry had been in the Army, and Sammy was undoubtedly very, very busy. And when Henry listened to the audio logs inside of the music department... 

      He couldn't put into words how far Sammy had fallen. Talking of a 'lord', that would 'set him free'. The...  _things_ that Sammy had set on him inside of the recording room. Sammy... Sammy couldn't even remember or recognize him. Sammy had even tried to kill him, to release what was known as the 'ink demon' on him. But, of course, The Ink Demon went after Sammy instead. Henry would have thrown up at the pained sounds of Sammy dying, if he hadn't been so panicked and busy killing the Searchers around him. And, once again, Henry hated leaving the music composer behind.

 

* * *

 

 

      There was mentions of Sammy throughout the studio; Susie (or was it Alice?) had mentioned him, calling the Prophet a liar. Lost Ones would mention the crazed Prophet, and some of the writing on the walls had Sammy's handwriting. Eventually, he came across Sammy again, after coming to the Lost Ones town at the end of the ink river. Instead of trying to sacrifice Henry again, Sammy had shouted angrily about the Ink Demon having betrayed him, how he'd given the Demon everything. Sammy had tried to kill him once more; to try and chop him into pieces with the sketchy axe he wielded. And then, Sammy's angry bellowing had stopped, the sight of an axe being dug into the side of his head sickening. Tom had killed him, and even though he was thankful, he still had wanted Sammy alive. He didn't... want more blood his hands. And, almost too quickly...

 

      Everything had gone back right to the beginning. Right when Henry had first walked into the studio.

 

      And so, he did everything again. 

 

      Over, and over, and over, again, and again, and again.

 

      He'd seen every scene too many times to be affected, so many times that he memorized every line, after movement. He remembered when and where enemies popped up, never being surprised by them. He remembered everything, and god, did Henry wished he hadn't. Everything was so repetitive. And god damn it all, he just wanted to beat Joey to death with his handy axe. Joey... God,  _Joey_. He couldn't put into words how much he  _loathed_ the man. Betrum had been right; for all of Joeys talk of dreams, he'd been the architect behind so, so many nightmares. Joey was why Susie had been replaced, why Sammy had gone insane, why Norman had become a grotesque monster, why Bertrum had become one of his own creations. Joey was the reason why Henry left. Yes, Henry had been drafted. But... to say the least, Henry was glad he was. Joey really was a disgusting, selfish man. He wondered why he ever considered the man his friend. So, he continued on, and on. He didn't want to keep going, but no matter how much he waited, or how many times he died, nothing ever changed.

 

      Until, something did change. 

 

      It was... surprising. Henry had braced himself to fall when he walked on that plank he always fell on, to fall into the ink and go and fight the Demon. But... it didn't break. Instead, he, Al, and Tom all walked across the planks, and reached the other end of the hallway, where a GENT machine was placed. Henry... actually didn't know what would happen next. He kept expecting to end up fighting the Demon, but... it never came. He only ever ran from the inky monster, rather than fight him head on. Nothing... nothing was predictable anymore. He didn't know what was going to happen from then on. After so long of knowing where he would place each step, it was a shock to not know what to say, or not know where to go. It was... unsettling. But at the same time, Henry was grateful. He could do something different this time, maybe. Help someone, maybe find an actual exit from this place. So, Henry ventured forth, not knowing what would happen next.

 

      And, for the third time, Henry came across Sammy once more. But... it wasn't the same, crazed inky man he knew. No, it was the Sammy he'd known from before he'd left the studio. But, he'd had no time to ponder on what was happening, as the sight of Sammy near death and being strangled by the Demon made his thoughts race, and so, he got the (now unconcious) man out of there. He'd gotten a good look at the composer, and found that... he looked much older. Graying hair, slightly more wrinkled skin... and also covered head to toe in ink, but... he was the same man he'd known all those years ago. So, he'd brought the man back to Al and Tom, and let him rest.

 

      Sammy had woken up, and quickly, Sammy had found himself panicked, believing everything was a dream. And god, Henry wished he thought the same. He sympathized with the man. And quickly, almost too quickly, Henry had found that his and Sammy's stories... didn't line up. For one, Sammy knew the Demon as a small, impish cartoon that was- _snrk_ - _head of the Animation Department_. It was  _unbelieveable_ , how Sammy's own studio was one so happy. How each of the toons were really alive, and happy. Susie still had her role as Alice Angel, Boris was a happy toon that worked with Sammy, and Bendy was basically the boss of the entire studio. Henry laughed at the stupid stories Sammy told, joking about how Bendy liked to ride on Boris's shoulders to make himself feel tall. The toons all acted like how Henry had thought they would; Bendy, a mischievious demon; Boris, a friendly yet very hungry wolf; and Alice Angel, a heavenly woman who didn't take shit from anyone. Henry almost envied this Sammy, and how his studio-Hell's Studio, it'd been dubbed-was so damn happy and successful. Hell... the Joey there even sounded like a decent man. Henry wished he could see it someday.

 

      Everything had seemed fine, even with all the monsterous creatures roaming around. But... of course, with the studio, nothing ever lasted forever. Henry, Al, and Tom had woken to Sammy missing, and the door open. They'd gone into a panic, and, grabbing their weapons, stormed out of the room and looked everywhere for Sammy. It hadn't taken long, though, and when they had found him... well, the composer was fighting himself. Literally.

 

      The Prophet was holding the axe above Sammy, and Sammy held the axe back, tugging it like a dangerous game of tug-of-war. The Prophet was clearly pissed, and Sammy seemed to be slightly panicking, but almost equally as angry, albeit confused. And before either one could gain control of the axe, they fell into the inky lake below, and quickly running over to the lake, Henry reached down into the thick liquid, and grabbed at what felt like Sammy's hand, and tugged upwards, dragging Sammy out of the ink. Sammy was covered in ink, his clothes stained a pitch black, one of his suspenders off his shoulder. And, when Henry had tried to get Sammy up, the man hardly responded, only looking at them with a blank stare. And then, screaming.

 

      Whatever the ink did to Sammy, clearly wasn't good. And the next few minutes where hell and almost went by in a flash. Before Henry had known it, he was inside of Sammy's own studio. He'd passed out, and woken a few days later. The pure difference between his studio and Sammy's was like the difference between black and white. It was such a stark contrast to his own, that Henry was sure it caused culture shock. Seeing the outside for the first time was amazing, as well as seeing color. Everything was so different; it was... insane. He couldn't help but envy this place. And, of course, one thing happened after another; Sammy had woken up, and was found the he'd marged with his own studio's Sammy. Sam had taken control of Sammy's body, and had tried to kill Joey, but only managed to hurt the man. Joey had been taken to the infirmary, and Henry had talked to Sammy. He calmed the both of them down. Henry had thought that that was the end of it, and had gone off with Al, Tom, and his own counterpart. He knew Sammy would be fine with Alice, Boris, and Susie.

 

      But, of course... things never go how you want it to go. 

 

      The ink demon was there. And what had happened at his studio happened right there, where he was.

 

      But, even though he didn't exactly trust these people yet...

 

      Henry knew that this place would be given a happy ending.

 

 

An ending that they deserved.


End file.
